I wasnt fond of the flow of the last couple chapters-decided to change it up. Cas's POV felt like a good choice.
Castiel
I've been watching over her when she sleeps.
Which isn't often anymore. I try to coax her to slumber. She likes the cadence of my voice-sometimes I tell her stories or pick up the book she's been reading. I feel at peace with myself when I see her tired eyes finally slip closed.
She fights it, of course, because Lucifer is always there when she dreams. We don't know why he is gone when I'm present-I'm grateful-but my presence doesn't keep him at bay when she's unconscious.
I never leave her at night, unless I must. Unless Sam and Dean need me. I've all but abandoned Heaven, and it is a release I cannot measure. My place is here, with her. If I must go to help my brothers, Jack keeps watch-I usually find him sitting cross-legged on her bed when I return. If we see she is too distressed in dreams, we wake her. Repeat the process.
At first, I would sit in the chair across from her, but she would reach out to me while dreaming-I know she was reaching only for me. For my arms, my warmth, my comfort-things I didn't even realize I could provide until we crossed paths.
It felt strange getting into her bed, not because it was her, but because my kind doesn't sleep-the act of lying down in itself is peculiar.
I can't explain our bond, but it feels like it is coded into my being. She calls it "imprinting", says she has "imprinted on me".
Once I was next to her, though murmuring and twitching, she rolled into me as if I were magnetic, burying her face in my chest. I slid my arm under her so I could hold her fully. I never knew contentment until that night, and I have come to crave that contact.
She thinks I'm the angel…
After that, she asked me to lay with her the moment she got into bed. She seemed unsure if I would, voice soft and abashed, her sweet face flushed. It feels so natural to go to her, to have her against me.I can feel all of her muscles relax when she's in my arms-I feel the waves of tension always carried there, crashing into her, and then I feel the tide come and carry it all away.
Sam and Dean are trying to adjust to my...to the imprint. It's a mutual experience, and perhaps it is nice to name it.
Dean says it's simple-I'm in love, or at least I think I am. I feel it's true, but I don't think it's that simple either. Sam did not contribute to the conversation.
We've been attempting to locate Lucifer. We haven't gotten anywhere, even Jack has been unsuccessful. He thinks Lucifer is blocking him somehow, rather than not being earth-bound altogether. Jack is fiercely protective of Alice, and he's determined to rid her of his biological Father-we all are-but for him, it's personal on both sides.
She is sleeping sound tonight, her arm draped over my hip. The unusual calm stirs something new in me...I suppose it is desire. I've felt it before, in all of our closeness, but tonight it's more pronounced, more pressing.
I don't get to experience it for long. I hear the door outside swing open, smack against the wall. Clamouring down the stairs with heavy feet.
Alice stirs when I move from the bed. She looks up at me, questioning. "Cas?"
"Cas!", Dean yells. "A little help, here!"
She jumps up and we make our way to the front of the bunker. Dean has Sam on the floor in his lap. "Sammy!", his voice is panicked. "Sam! Stay with me. Don't sleep!"
He's been shot-a chest wound. His face is puffy, bloody. He tries to respond to Dean but his eyes flutter, his lips forming a word that his body can't express. The bullet is near his heart.
Alice rushes to him, knees on the floor, tears on her face.
"What happened?", I ask, leaning over him.
"It was Meg. she asked for help. Demons on her again.", Dean replies.
Meg...it has been a long time. At some point I started to wonder if I'd ever hear her name again. While Sam and Dean hesitate to call her an ally, I don't. She's a friend. She evolved from the typical demonic life. Dare I say, it's almost as if she developed a soul.
"There's no exit wound", Dean says grimly. "Cas, help him!"
"H-hospital", Alice manages.
Sam is in bad shape. I shake my head and kneel over him, placing my hand on the wound, which causes him to stir infinitesimally. Alice calls his name, and he responds with "Ali…". His voice hushed, weak. I concentrate, draw my light forward and outward. It is not penetrating him.
I try again. Dean is asking me what's happening. The energy is there, it's all there. It's as if it's being blocked before it can reach him. "Something is preventing me from healing him." I say sadly. "A cap on angelic grace. Is it possible he's been warded against it?"
Alice rests her forehead against Sam's, tears falling on his face. I feel it then, a soft radiating of warm purple light emanating from her.
"Alice…?", I breathe. The light is growing, flaming out at it's edges. She cradles him with a most delicate touch. She is trembling. I sense her sorrow, her fear. Her love. Punctuated by fierce determination.
"What? What is it?" Deans eyes are locked on her. As the light intensifies, his eyes widen-he can now see it, too.
Alice whimpers, her hands on either side of Sam's face. Ever so slowly, the light creeps over him, starting at his temples, branching over his face, across his neck, onto his chest.
"You're not leaving us!", she growls, the aura now starting to dissipate from it's concentration around her, pooling strong over his chest in thick beams.
Sam and Alice cry out in unison, his chest begins to rattle. Dean averts his eyes, the light too bright. Incredulous, I watch the wound lift slightly, then see the tip of the bullet. Alice whimpers again as she tries to push it further out. It remains where it is lodged.
"You can do this, Alice", I say firmly, with absolutely no idea as to how she is managing it. Her face stiffens, a trickle of blood leaks from her nose. I change my mind at the sight of it, fearing the strain is too much for her. But I know she will not stop.
The bullet withdraws further, the pull more steady. The room erupts in a flash of lavender as the bullet rolls off Sam's chest and falls to the floor with a quiet clang. The wound disappears, you can see the faint hue glowing under his skin as it heals.
Sam opens his eyes to see Alice hunched over him. She is propped up on shaky fists for a moment longer, before allowing herself to collapse. .